Animated Atrocities 86
Summary It might be just me, but I think that this has aged REALLY poorly. I know that I'm going to get some flack for this, but I never really liked the show Rocket Power. Why is that? Well, this is the definition of a show that does not age gracefully. It's a show that came from focus groups trying to make what they think the kids want to see based on stereotypes, instead of trying to tell interesting or unique stories, kinda like Sanjay and Craig is now. It does not matter what era you're doing this in. It always ends badly! Whether in the 2010s or the 1990s. The only difference is the cliches that you use. Instead of two bro dudes being dicks to people, we've got a highly in-your-face style with slang that no one ever used TO THE EXTREME! If you were around at the time the show aired, it might have been enjoyable, but looking back it's very grating. You want proof? Let's take a look at the episode "Snow Day", which has plot and moral problems on top of the shows other problems. You want to know one of the show's main problems? All of the characters are cardboard cutouts: Otto is the asshole! Twister is the idiot! Reg is the 'Girl Power' girl! And Sam is the nerd! Everything they do or say revolves entirely around this, or maybe one other little trait like Sam being from Kansas. of the in-your-face text Also, one of the stylistic choices was emphasizing random words with the in-your-face video effects words. This is annoying and it happens three times in this episode alone! The episode begins with the kids not wanting to go to school and Sam says that, if they were in Kansas, they wouldn't have to go to school, because it's a snow day there. This gets Otto to want to skip school. You want to know another one of the show's problems? The main character is an asshole, because the chart says the kids want to watch a REBEL! I mean the other shows in the Nickelodeon lineup at the time like Hey Arnold, Rugrats and early SpongeBob definitely support this theory. Even as a kid, I was always annoyed by Otto. And, you know what? Dont even try the 'it's for kids' excuse here. I was a kid when this show was airing! And that doesn't change my opinion in the slightest. No matter who you are looking back on the show, you're probably going to think that it's 'TOTALLY 90s'. This is a problem. It's a culmination of most of their worst traits. Meant to pander, and, to an outsider's perspective, this is borderline unwatchable. No slang, timeless character types, you rarely ever see a computer. This show is still running today. When compared to the more timeless shows like Hey Arnold or early SpongeBob, they speak better to the era. Anyone can enjoy them and they add to a repertoire of culture. Shows made like this one? They don't create culture; they leech off of culture! That's one of the main reasons I'm so hard on pandering shows like this, no matter what the era is! Otto gets Sam to skip school, because the other two are helping out in a school assembly that we never see them help out with. Otto: 'Come on! You know that Ms. Richardson is always telling us to use our imagination. I'm imagining I'm in Kansas now. And there is no school! Yes, kids did imitate that clever little play! Also, Sam goes along with this a little bit too easily. Do you want to know a problem specific to shows of this era? Pretty much every show did every moral the exact same way. Remember that Recess episode I reviewed? Well, it turns out that there's a Weekenders episode that fails in the exact same way. Here's how the shows of this era did a 'skipping school' moral: the characters that skip school have an unusually horrible day, and the kids that stay in school have an unusually good day. And it usually involves a carnival at school. Yeah, Hey Arnold did this the exact same way, so when one fails, they all fail. I get what they're going for, I really do. They're trying to say 'You never know what you'll miss if you skip school', but it's not believable in any way, shape or form. Kids are going to know that none of this stuff is likely to happen and the lesson will be lost on them completely. Don't sacrifice believability on the altar of a moral, because that NEVER works out. When you're doing something like this, you're essentially saying that there is no reason to go to school on a typical day and there are no consequences for skipping on a typical day. The kids who stayed in school get a carnival, because it's ALWAYS a carnival. Meanwhile, Otto and Sam try to go surfing. '''Sam: '...bring our surfboards with us. 'Otto: '''Sammy... We'll just borrow them from my dad. jumpcut I promise to bring two surfboards in for show-and-tell fourth period. That reminds me, even in cartoons, the kids have to call in sick so they don't get caught for skipping school. Otto and Sam never do that. After they nearly get caught, they decide to go to the amusement park. To get there, they need to get past the Shore Shack without being seen. '''Sam: 'no way we could climb that. '''Otto: '''No, but we can climb THAT! There's no way he could have known that was there. In the end Sam and Otto get on to the roller coaster. Unless there's like imdustrial glue on the tracks. The roller coaster car isnt responsible for breaking, only certain segments of track.... which aren't on loops. Unfortunately, it gets stuck upside down. For the record, on a still roller coaster like that, it's impossible for a coaster to be stuck on a loop. The only part under mechanical control are the ink lines, and only some of them. The rest of the ride is done by gravity, but considering that the show about sports doesn't get its knowledge on sports right half of the time, why would I expect them to know about roller coaster? And this gets Sam and Otto caught. In ten years or so, Sanjay and Craig is going to end up looking a lot like Rocket Power does now. To the untrained eye, it'll be a snapshot of an era, and to that untrained eye, that era is going to be pretty damn terrible. Filled with all the same cliches, cardboard cutouts and slang that no one ever used, even at the time. The only 90s cliche that Rocket Power doesn't have sworn in is gross out, and I suppose I should count my blessings, because I don't think I can handle this combined with Mega Babies! I mean, I would even go ahead and say this is the worst Klasky Csupo show, if it wasn't for- of the title "Rugrats Pre-School Daze Oooooh nooooo... Trivia * Mr. Enter almost constantly speaking slang in the beginning of his Snow Day review. * '''Credits song: "Cutting Edge" from The Brave Little Toaster. Category:Animated Atrocities